Featured Article(s)
SQL Server 2005 XML Optimization Tips
Here are some helpful tips to ensure you work with SQL Server 2005 XML in the most efficient manner possible.
Have You Seen This Toolset?
I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Idera has a great set of tools – 24 of them, actually – available as a complete set… for $195.00. You can download this entire toolset, use it with your servers, see what all the fuss is about. There are troubleshooting, administration, reporting tools — all part of the toolset. We’ll even be giving away three copies of the suite at the Virtual Conference next week – one every day. Take a look here, and download your copy.
Special Request: Testing a New Feature
Today (Weds) we’ll be testing a new feature we’ve been working on for SSWUG. We’re considering having chats on the site (both open chats and topic-specific chats). So, we need your help to test the chat application Alpha that we’ve been working on. If you’re interested, please head to http://bitonthewire.wpengine.com/aspchat. You will need to be logged in to SSWUG. We’ll be testing at 7:00p Eastern Time. We hope you can join us let us know what you think of the idea.
Is This a Trend???
I’ve had a couple of really strange experiences that are so similar, I’m just hoping it’s coincidence. These two different clients have come with fairly major projects, projects that they haven’t defined, but are looking for us to define for them, then do the work of course. So far, so good.
The issue is that both customers are asking for specific, fixed quotes on both time and money. They’re asking for these before we have any time to investigate the work to be done and before we have any kind of rational information about the project expectations. Essentially, we’re to guess at these projects, then hope we’re right. In one case, the potential customer even wanted their lawyers to look at the contract to make sure some of the language properly boxed us in on the fixed bid amount and delivery dates.
This has happened with different customers, different situations, this week. We walked away from one customer, are about to walk away from another, because it’s asking for a disastrous project. There is a common thread here though.
Panic.
These customers are looking for some recovery work in one case, and in the other it’s a project working between systems on a very short date timeframe. The panic that is impacting this process is blinding these customers to thinking through the planning. It’s preventing them from "doing it right," and it’s sure to cause the projects to either fail outright, or will force the project well beyond the goals – functionally, timeline-wise and budget-wise.
If you find yourself in this position – that of forcing the issue on a project or trying to really squeeze someone without first working through requirements and such, take a second and stop and reconsider what you’re doing. In the medium-run – not even the long-run – you’ll pay much bigger dividends by taking the time to think it through and do what’s really needed.
SQL Server Weekly Show
SelectViews: Identity Lifecycle Management, Security, 100% CPU Issues and Upcoming Events. Also, SQL Server Instance Discovery in the Accidental DBA Segment, Noise and News in the DB World and a Lot More.
Previous videos:
[Watch] SelectViews – Bill Gates, OSLO, SOA and a whole lot more
[Watch] SelectViews – Injection Recovery, Auto-Grow/Shrink, Good Enough Follow-Up
Featured White Paper(s)
SQL Injection: What it is and how to prevent it
SQL injection is the hacking technique which attempts to pass SQL commands through a web application for execution by a backe… (read more)
Whole Server Protection from a Single Solution
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